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My Last Run
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Just a couple more days in Montenegro and we're checking out the old town of Kotor today. I decided to do my own personal Parkrun this morning, so banged out 5km in 26 and a bit minutes along the prom. Very humid again, which means I find it harder to regulate my breathing, but I'm hoping I will feel the benefits when I get back to the cooler UK. I'm sure it's what all the top athletes do
The fisherman Nye and I watched last night was still in the same spot this morning and still catching. Skills. A second friendly good morning from an old dude emptying his bins and lots of the local stray cats foraging for scraps. There are lots of pomegranate trees here and Mrs Will has been enjoying the pomegranate wine. Overall, I'm feeling in quite good shape. A few aches in the shin areas but maybe that's heat/humidity/swelling?? Should fit in one more run before getting back for my Autumn Series of 4 x half marathons.
16.5 on/offroad in bit under 2hrs07. Saw a whole bunch of, I think, young pheasants running about. Not sure. At first sight I thought they were those upright running ducks, but wrong feet. Followed a sign for a bridle path which lead to a dual carriageway. Doubled back. Apparently the old track though does continue on the other side of the four lanes. Warm and muggy. All went okay.
The neighbour's cat has given our sofa worms.
I got out for run number 10 of my Balkan Training Camp this morning. The sun was impressive as it gradually lit up the mountain sides surrounding the bay. Just an easy 5km to loosen bits up a bit. A friendly good morning from my bin carrying out acquaintance and managed to beat the bread van to the only shop in the village. A host of stray cats were eyeing a beautifully glistening haul of anchovies that were being unloaded from a rickety little fishing boat. A lady was watering her flowers meticulously , ubiquitous fag drooping from her mouth.
And here is the little bay we're in for one final night - Perast.
Good to hear from you, Matt. That does sound like you bonked - more carbs perhaps?
I want to be on holiday.
13.2 miles in bit over 1hr40. Difficult conditions for me but turned out alright. Humidity easily kills me. Not hot but warm moist thick air and a heavy breeze which faced me no matter which way I turned. Like running through a thin soup. Conditions did change halfway which helped.
I think the cat gave the sofa flea larvae. And something has bitten my leg. Have vacuumed the hell out of it (the sofa) and dewormed and deflead the neighbour's filthy cat, who as I type this has run into the room and sat on me. Crap cat.
Felt a bit rubbish yesterday and as the weather was set to be nicer today, I went today instead. Cool and bright - so much nicer for running in. Did 8 easy miles. I'm still not 100% - I think I may be fighting a slight cold or something, or maybe a little run down and tired. Not surprising given my recent mileage. Next week will be a big cut back anyway as I have Maidenhead half that weekend.
Parkrun for me too today - the flatter one in Norwich at Eaton Park. My Dad was aiming for a PB and I've done lots of 5Kish runs in the last couple of weeks, so I decided to give it a push too. I hit about 7:45 a mile once I got going and found that OK until the end of mile 2, when I lost my puff a bit. A little section with the foot slightly off the pedal and I regained some momentum for the final push. PB of 24:02 and closer still to getting 23 on the clock, so well happy with that. I then joined my Dad for the last 400m to help pace him home for a PB of 28:41. Happy days!
Good to see you Matt.
Was worried for a moment you had vacuumed the hell out of the cat JT. (some do like it apparently). Nice HM by yourself. Humidity is awful stuff.
Nice parkrunning Cal.
For me 11.7 miles yesterday along a local river mostly on gentle trails to get in some flat running and a 3 mile recovery jog this afternoon. Last pre-mara big long run tomorrow - will try to push to 22 miles but 20 would be ok as well. Much cooler here as well. Even managed a few goose pimples when setting off and it was nice to finish a couple of runs without sweat dripping off my chin.
9.1miles tonight in 1hr08. Longsleeves and baselayer. Felt rubbish all day not helped by a big bag of pork scratchings. Arduous first few miles with acid reflux but eventually settled. Had to dodge around some race going galavants.
Now gone past 1,500miles for the year.
Neighbour's cat is squished up next to me again. Given he spends most of his time in our yard or house, he gets fed here several times daily, and I've just spent £60 on an outdoor cat house to keep him sheltered when the weather turns he's doing okay.
I then headed over to Brockwell using the meandering route I normally take (rather than the direct route I ran yesterday to reach the parkrun) but rather than lap the park, I did two thirds of it then headed out towards Dulwich. I've not been there in years but I went to Infants and then Junior school in Dulwich village, and rather comfortingly, nothing has really changed beyond ownership of a few shops, and the ominous gothic church that burned down in the 90s has been replaced with a modern one.
My main reason for going there was to see if I could run to Dulwich parkrun, since it's an arse to get to on public transport (I'd have to change trains three times, going no more than a stop or two each time before changing, so it'd take an hour even though it's a relatively short distance). Dulwich park is still rather nice. Saw a cyclist with a Jody Cundy-style prosthetic leg (he didn't have Jody's quads, though, so definitely wasn't him).
Headed back from there to Camberwell via some back streets I remember from childhood, down Camberwell Grove where my best friend used to live (rather disappointed to see her house is no longer pink, but a rather boring rust colour. Its neighbour is still pink, though). Then up Denmark Hill, which is a bit of a climb, back into Brockwell Park to complete the lap, and home from there. 3:25:22 and legs were still fine when I finished (but I needed to take care of, ahem, business, so...yeah).
56 miles for the week - a new record. Next week will be half that, as I'm gunning for a PB at Maidenhead. Fingers crossed.
20 for Cal, too - makes me nervous and excited in fairly equal measures for my marathon training, that I plan to start in November. Got to get my commitment head on.
Huge miles total, JT. I'm sure pork scratchings have their part to play in that. Do you go for the mass produced puffy affairs, or the hand-cut real pig skin version?
More big Parkrun stuff in our house yesterday. My boy, Nye, smashed his PB by 11 seconds and my daughter, Awen, just 4, finished her first ever Junior Parkrun. Very proud Dad and she was really chuffed with herself, proceeding to eat non-stop for the rest of the day!
I was quite stiff and sore from Saturday's efforts, as was my Pa, so the 2km was a perfect recovery run. I was highly disciplined over my mum's homemade meringues and cream as I needed to put in a decent run last night. The rain came down and didn't stop - very welcome - and I put together a new route for 8.5 easy/sore miles. My night trails half marathon starts at 8pm on Friday and it struck me, during some of the less well-lit sections, that the trail I'm running (totally unlit) may be rather interesting under just a headtorch. Should be fun (if I can stay out of A and E).
My usually stiff left calf has been replaced in the niggles department by some soreness in the inside right shin muscle area. I noticed it a bit on holiday. Hopefully plenty of stretching and rolling in the week will sort it out, although I bottled out of a rolling session and yesterday as the back of my thighs were too painful (wimp). I'm planning just one more short run before the race on Friday.
Was feeling left out of the 20mile club so 21.1miles today in 2hrs45+. Covered most of the bike track by the A64 between York and Tadcaster going one way or the other. Saw a big desiccated fox carcass and a bunch of metal detectorists out in a field. Quite breezy with sprays of rain and almost cold. Went okay but long long runs are never easy. When I got back in my skin was saltier that a sailors tavern, and the neighbour's cat licked me. That wasn't pleasant.
Well done on a speedy 21, JT. It takes me 50 minutes longer to cover that distance. I daresay the cat found you a good alternative to pork scratchings too.
A grey and muggy 6 miles for me today. After two 50+ weeks I'm having a cut-back week as I have Maidenhead this weekend (I still can't believe they named a town after a hymen).
I almost bailed out of today's run having finished work at 12 and already done over 10,000 steps especially after last week's difficulties but I went out and had a really good one. Fourteen and a half miles at a pace twenty seconds better than last week's half (2h15m finish time today) and I was able to maintain a steady pace throughout without the need to slow down in the last few miles. It takes me over the 100 mile for the month for the first time since January 2016 too, but with a week that's been bookended by two LSRs it puts me on 40 miles in seven days so an easier week is required from now on. Also today marks the final effort from my lovely shoes which now have a massive 753 miles in them, new boots for my next run!
Long tradition of naming places after lady parts - Vulvagrad, Birmingeham and, erm, Cuntstaninople.
Sorry.
Well done to your kids Will. Good luck for your trail HM on Friday. Keep concentrating the whole way round.
Great 21 miler JT. Interesting play with the place names.
Good work by you too Matt. Enjoy shoe shopping (if you haven't been already).
Gentle 6 mile recovery in 01:04:48 with my Tuesday group. First time I have met up with them in that setting in a few weeks. Almost everybody has long-planned races (Medoc, Jungfrau, Berlin) in the next couple of weeks so plenty of chat.
Got my Berlin number through per email today. 68453. Seems very real now.
3.5 mile shakeout tonight, with several 15-20 step stride things. Cut my toenails and checked my vaseline supplies. Bring it.
Will, remind me what race you're doing?
And another 6 for me today. I abstained from going out in yesterday's deluge, but today was perfect - fresh and sunny. I put on the magic Zoom Flys and did 6 with three miles at HMP. Some niggles in the lower limbs - they have had a battering these past weeks, though.
Not really a fan of pink either, although I do own a pair of eye-searing bright pink and orange Frees. I ran Manchester in them last year, but they're retired now - I wear them if I'm volunteering at parkrun.
I think I'm going to start buying dark coloured shoes in future. My Zoom Flys and Epics are both light blue/light turquoise and they're both filthy from running on the cinder trails on Tooting Common.